Pak rakes up J&K issue at UN again

A lonely voice from the wilderness, says India

United Nations, Oct. 4: Pakistan has raked up the Kashmir issue again at the UN with its envoy Maleeha Lodhi accusing India of spreading terrorism in the Valley, drawing a sharp reaction from India which described her diatribe as a “lonely voice from the wilderness”.

Pakistan’s ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Lodhi, during a debate of the General Assembly, also alleged that India made a “false claim” of conducting surgical strike across the LoC to provoke conflict with Pakistan.

She warned New Delhi that “any aggression” by it would receive a “matching and effective response”. “This claim, and India’s repeated threats to conduct such strikes across the LoC, constitute flagrant violations of the UN Charter’s injunction against the use or threat of use of force,” Ms Lodhi said during the debate on the Report of the Secretary General on the work of the world body. She said that the UN should not “ignore these open threats to use force” by India.

The international community should take urgent action to ask India to halt its provocations against Pakistan, she said.

Continuing her tirade against India on the Kashmir issue, Ms Lodhi alleged, “To cover up its crimes against the Kashmiri people, and to divert world attention, India resorts to daily violation of the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir.”

Ms Lodhi said the international community represented in the United Nations cannot allow “India impunity to conduct “crimes against humanity” in Kashmir.

Eenam Gambhir, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, exercising the country’s right to reply said, “We have heard a lonely voice from the wilderness articulate a narrative of the past.”